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Miscellanous Ramblings

Since I sent in edits on my mystery Moonstone project the other day, I’ve been focusing my attention on the Lazarus Gray/Thunder Jim Wade story since. I should be working on Foster Fade but that’s an old refrain by now.

According to Anthony Castrillo, I may actually receive the Lazarus Gray: Origins comic pages soon! I know, I know. After this long of a wait, they’ve acquired a semi-mythical quality, haven’t they? But maybe… maybe. There’s always hope, right? LOL

I may do another rpg writeup tomorrow but I’m not sure what character it’ll be. If you have suggestions, let me know.

Finishing up “The Blue Death,” a classic Shadow novel. It’s been fun though it won’t go down as one of my very favorite Shadow stories. It’s solid but the lack of a great villain keeps it from attaining legendary status. I do prefer the early Shadow novels, though — it’s not that the ones from the Forties aren’t good (some are truly incredible) but I find the earlier ones have a verve that’s more consistently present than in the later tales. Give me Harry Vincent and Rutledge Mann over Margo Lane any day.

Been hearing snippets about Indiana Jones 5 and how unlikely it is that a new film will be made anytime soon. I’d love to see a new actor in the role — but NOT A REMAKE. I don’t want to see Raiders of the Lost Ark ‘re-imagined.’ Just put a new guy in the Fedora, have him be the same Indiana Jones characters and go forth. For that matter, I’m tired of seeing superhero movies rebooted. Here’s an idea — don’t do a freakin’ origin story over and over again. We know who Spider-Man is. Summarize his origin in the opening credits and then go tell a new Spidey story. Maybe I’m just old and grumpy, lol.

The artwork for today is by Anthony Castrillo and was his first attempt at Lazarus Gray — I immediately nixed the mask and a few other details, but it’s still a good look at the creative process.

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Unfortunately, Batman Begins was a bit TOO good, because now the thought is that every franchise in need of a shot in the arm needs a reboot. The thing they’re not getting is that the story told in Batman Begins wasn’t really told in the original Batman films — there was no real explanation about how he became Batman except for flashbacks to the murder of his parents and a few vague mentions of him being all over the world (like when he tells Vicki and Knox in the first film that he knows a suit of armor is Japanese because he bought it in Japan). So it was a story definitely worth telling.

The Incredible Hulk handled the origin angle very well — within the opening credits, you get a few flashes to Bruce’s first transformation and it tells you everything you need to know. Punisher: War Zone (despite its other problems) also did this well by just having some flashbacks to Castle’s family lying dead in the park. I think too many movies rely on redoing the origin because it’s the easiest thing to do. Spend half the film on the origin and you’re almost done.

Although that being said, I am really looking forward to Amazing Spider-Man.

I’ve been saying for years that Harrison Ford should hand over the whip to somebody new. I can never understand the fanaticism of the fans who claim that only Harrison Ford can play Indiana Jones. If we can have six different actors playing James Bond then we can have somebody else play Indiana Jones. I say hunt up Sean Patrick Flannery who actually did play the teenage/young adult Indy in THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES. Give him the part and let’s see some of those wartime WWII adventures that were mentioned in KOTCS.